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NVIDIA GeForce 930M

NVIDIA GeForce 930M

The NVIDIA GeForce 930M (sometimes also called Nvidia GeForce GT 930M) is a (lower) mid-range, DirectX 11-compatible graphics card for laptops unveiled in March 2015. It is based on the last years GeForce 840M. In addition to the "normal" 25 Watt 930M, there is also a low power variant with a TDP of 12 Watt and support for DDR3 and GDDR5. The DDR3 variant should be approximately 10% slower than the 25 Watt version. The performance of the GDDR5 version is still unknown. The shader count for these low power 930M are also unknown. As the LP version is clocked only at 457 MHz + Boost it may feature more shaders (or a high Boost).

Update: The N16S-LP variant (5-12 Watt TDP, Low Power version?) will be available with GDDR5 starting in the first quarter of 2016. Later in 2016, the successor named GeForce 930MX was released that was available with GDDR5.

Architecture

Compared to Kepler, Maxwell has been optimized in several details to increase power efficiency. Smaller Streaming Multiprocessors (SMM) with only 128 ALUs (Kepler: 192) and an optimized scheduler should lead to better utilization of the shaders. Nvidia promises that a Maxwell SMM with 128 ALUs can offer 90 percent of the performance of a Kepler SMX with 192 ALUs. The 930M should feature the full GM108 with 3 SMMs (384 shader cores, 24 TMUs, and 8 ROPs due to the 64-bit interface). 

Another optimization is the massively enlarged L2 cache. The larger size can process some of the memory traffic to allow for a relatively narrow memory interface without significantly reducing performance.

Similar to GM107, the GM108 supports DirectX 12 with Feature Level 11_0 only.

Performance

The performance should be a bit below an average GeForce 840M due to the slower core clock. This means that demanding games like Evolve are only playable in lowest settings. Less demanding games like F1 2014 or Fifa 15 on the other hand should run in highest settings. See gaming benchmarks below for more details.

Features

GM108 integrates the sixth generation of the PureVideo HD video engine (VP6), offering a better decoding performance for H.264 and MPEG-2 videos. Of course, VP6 supports all features of previous generations (4K support, PIP, video encoding via NVENC API). Unfortunately, HDMI 2.0 is still not supported.

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the GeForce 930M should be about 33 Watts or less. Therefore, the 930M is best suited for laptops 13 inches in size or larger. The 900M series also supports Optimus to automatically switch between an integrated graphics card and the Nvidia GPU.

ManufacturerNVIDIA
GeForce 900M Series
GeForce 945M (compare) 512 @ 928 - 1045 (Boost) MHz128 Bit @ 2000 MHz
Maxwell GPU (940M, GDDR5) (compare) 384 @ 954 - 993 (Boost) MHz64 Bit @ 5012 MHz
GeForce 940MX (compare) 384 @ 1122 - 1242 (Boost) MHz64 Bit
GeForce 940M (compare) 384 @ 1072 - 1176 (Boost) MHz64 Bit @ 2000 MHz
GeForce 930MX (compare) 384 @ 952 - 1020 (Boost) MHz64 Bit @ 2000 MHz
GeForce 930M 384 @ 928 - 941 (Boost) MHz64 Bit @ 1800 MHz
GeForce 920MX (compare) 256 @ 965 - 993 (Boost) MHz64 Bit @ 1800 MHz
GeForce 920M (compare) 384 @ 954 MHz64 Bit @ 1800 MHz
GeForce 910M (compare) 384 @ 641 MHz64 Bit @ 2000 MHz
CodenameN16S-GM-B/S, N16S-LP
ArchitectureMaxwell
Pipelines384 - unified
Core Speed928 - 941 (Boost) MHz
Memory Speed1800 MHz
Memory Bus Width64 Bit
Memory TypeDDR3
Max. Amount of Memory2048 MB
Shared Memoryno
DirectXDirectX 12 (FL 11_0), Shader 5.0
technology28 nm
FeaturesGPU Boost 2.0, Optimus, PhysX, CUDA, GeForce Experience, GameWorks
Date of Announcement12.03.2015
Link to Manufacturer Pagehttp://www.geforce.com/hardware/notebook...

Benchmarks

3DMark - Cloud Gate Standard Score 1280x720
min: 5685     avg: 6270.8     median: 6071 (12%)     max: 7808 Points
+ 6 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Cloud Gate Standard Graphics 1280x720
min: 8148     avg: 8373.3     median: 8309 (5%)     max: 8684 Points
+ 6 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Fire Strike Score 1920x1080
min: 1267     avg: 1299.8     median: 1290.5 (6%)     max: 1369 Points
+ 6 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Fire Strike Graphics 1920x1080
min: 1435     avg: 1469.7     median: 1460.5 (4%)     max: 1527 Points
+ 6 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark - Ice Storm Standard Graphics 1280x720
min: 40616     avg: 59247.5     median: 56647 (8%)     max: 80544 Points
+ 6 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 11 - Performance 1280x720
min: 2131     avg: 2250.9     median: 2247 (8%)     max: 2456 points
+ 7 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
3DMark 11 - Performance GPU 1280x720
min: 2057     avg: 2144.7     median: 2153 (4%)     max: 2271 points
+ 7 benchmarks and specifications   - Hide comparison chart
3DMark Vantage
P Result 1280x1024 +
P GPU no PhysX 1280x1024 +
3DMark 06 Standard 1280x1024 +
Unigine Heaven 2.1 - high, Tesselation (normal), DirectX11 1280x1024
27.3 fps (12%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
SPECviewperf 11
Siemens NX 1920x1080 +
Tcvis 1920x1080 +
SolidWorks 1920x1080 +
Pro/ENGINEER 1920x1080 +
Maya 1920x1080 +
Lightwave 1920x1080 +
Ensight 1920x1080 +
Catia 1920x1080 +
Cinebench R10 Shading 32Bit +
Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL 64Bit +
Cinebench R15
OpenGL 64Bit +
Ref. Match 64Bit +
GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7
T-Rex HD Offscreen C24Z16 1920x1080 +
T-Rex HD Onscreen C24Z16 +
GFXBench 3.0 - Manhattan Offscreen OGL off screen
60.5 fps (11%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
GFXBench 3.0 - Manhattan Onscreen OGL on screen
59.2 fps (16%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
LuxMark v2.0 64Bit - Room GPUs-only
372 Samples/s (7%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
LuxMark v2.0 64Bit - Sala GPUs-only
694 Samples/s (7%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
ComputeMark v2.1 - Normal, Score 1024x600
1454 Points (7%)
+ 1 benchmarks and specifications   + Show comparison chart
- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance

Game Benchmarks

The following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailled information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

Ark Survival Evolved

Ark Survival Evolved

2017
low 1280x720
24.4  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Additional Benchmarks
Medium Preset (100 % Resolution Scale) 1366x768
10.5
F1 2017

F1 2017

2017
low 1280x720
39  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Additional Benchmarks
Medium Preset 4xAF 1366x768
26
Playerunknown's Battlegrounds
low 1280x720
34.5  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Additional Benchmarks
Medium Preset 1366x768
21.6
Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress 2

2017
low 1280x720
76.2  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
70  fps    + Compare
high 1920x1080
61  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings high.
Dirt 4

Dirt 4

2017
low 1280x720
62.2  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
23.2  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Rocket League
low 1280x720
79.3  fps    + Compare
med. 1920x1080
29  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Prey

Prey

2017
low 1280x720
51.1  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Additional Benchmarks
Medium Preset 4xAF FXAA 1366x768
34.3
Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War III
low 1280x720
37  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Additional Benchmarks
Medium / On (100 % Gameplay Resolution) MediumAA 1366x768
20.7
Mass Effect Andromeda
low 1280x720
27.3  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Additional Benchmarks
Medium Preset (Resolution Scale Mode off) FXAA 1366x768
19.1
Ghost Recon Wildlands
low 1280x720
24  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Additional Benchmarks
Medium Preset FXAA 1366x768
14.3
For Honor

For Honor

2017
low 1280x720
39.7  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Additional Benchmarks
Medium Preset 4xAF TAA 1366x768
22.8
Resident Evil 7
low 1280x720
54  fps    + Compare
» With all tested laptops playable in detail settings low.
Additional Benchmarks
Medium / Off FXAA 1366x768
22.6
Watch Dogs 2
low 1280x720
26.1  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
20.8  fps    + Compare
» The benchmarks indicate that the game is not playable in the tested settings.
Dishonored 2
low 1280x720
23.6  fps    + Compare
med. 1366x768
19.4  fps    + Compare